The need for water conservation is an important initiative for the entire community as it affects community members in various ways. After all, water use is an intimate part of each person’s daily life. However, despite water conservation being a genuine community concern, approaching the initiatives cannot be generalized to the entire community. Instead, a practical solution would be to focus the industry on addressing an essential factor – equity.
Equity in water conservation addresses varying needs across the customers’ different sectors of demographics and population. One of the ways to address equity in a water conservation initiative would be to deploy a diverse shareholder outreach program.
Here are some of the compelling reasons for the importance of diverse shareholder outreach for water conservation in the community:
Involvement of Underserved Population
Available water conservation programs tend to address solutions that only affect a section of the population and exclude the needs of the other sectors. This type of program tends to be unsuccessful as it fails to recognize the different needs of the underserved population; including minorities, low-income households, and multi-family household units.
One opportunity to address equity is bridging the gap in language barriers. Having diverse shareholders speak to the community in a language they understand and respond to could encourage the population to get involved. This could also clarify the current water conservation programs that people might not be aware of or have misunderstood. An example is an existing water conservation initiative that provides financial relief. Although economic initiatives are highly effective, the community might not be aware of this program or might need clarification on how it works and if they are eligible for it.
Another opportunity for the diverse shareholder to gain insight is the underserved population’s water use behavior. With this insight, effective water conservation programs that address their water use needs and behavior could be crafted for this population.
Thus, having a diverse shareholder outreach would foster the involvement of the underserved population in the water conservation mission.
Effectively Implementing Resources To Encourage Higher Engagement and Inclusion
As a result of the insight provided by the involvement of diverse shareholders with the underserved population in the mission, resources could better be deployed to improve the water conservation initiative.
In addition to the points made above, the important insights provided by the underserved population could help redirect resources to more effective factors that would better address the community’s needs. Some of these resources may be for other diverse initiatives, better marketing programs in these communities through practical tools that they respond to, or direct programs that touch upon matters that are important to the community.
Therefore, having insight into the underserved population’s needs, behaviors, and understanding of water conservation programs could effectively improve the mission’s implementation and ensure the program’s success.
Addressing equity in water conservation is essential to facilitating the water conservation mission. Effectively implementing a water conservation program catered to every sector of the community heightens the success of the end goal. After all, water conservation is a whole community matter, and its success dramatically relies on the participation of all of the community members.
If you have any questions about public relations that could affect your business or policies or require any social or community relations, give us a call to schedule a consultation today.
